Hui Lang is a dangerous, disturbed and bloody good writer. He also prefers to only be seen when manifested as a wolf (hence the picture below). Our short stories rub shoulders in the upcoming horror anthology All Dark Places and I was brave enough to interview him for this blog. Or should that be foolhardy? You decide.

Give a short tease about what happens in your short story for All Dark Places.

The Mark of the Spider is a pulp noir horror fiction set in San Francisco 1925. It’s a story about private eye Marlo Price who is drawn into a high-profile murder. It’s a race against time when the Stars of Carnage and Madness align.

Dark Secrets and Hidden Pasts is about a lantern bearer, Samdel Thatch, who is searching for an artifact that will secure the release of his elven wife, Lyra. However, when him and his sister-in-law are trapped in a dimensional snare called the Half Rift, they’ve warranted the attention of Samdel’s former goddess at an abandoned inn.

What inspired your short story?

For Mark, it was Call of Cthulhu (both the table-top RPG and stories) along with fast-action paced serials from the 1920s and 1930s. For Dark Secrets, the nature of just how insidious evil can be and who it affects formed the basis of that story.

What do you find scary?

I won’t say what personally scares me, because there will be shitload of assholes who will flood my FB page with pics of it, then I’ll need therapy for months. However, I know common things like pitch darkness, closed-in spaces, something crawling on your skin that you have no idea what it is, that’s pretty scary stuff.

Have you experienced anything at all like a horror story in real life?

Encountering people who suffer from mental illness and where they go completely batshit crazy in a public setting is about as scary as things I’ve witnessed in real life. I have walked in a pitch dark woods on a lonely night before. That certainly gave me a sense of heightened awareness.

When I was a kid, my dad took us fishing to some lake in the middle of a swamp when we lived in Florida. We saw the police boats out on the lake looking around with their lights. We were on the boat pier when we heard branches snapping. Whoever the cops were looking for were with us and not very far.

Why do you think some people are drawn to horror stories, and others are repelled by them?

Fear is a great emotion to experience because it does many things to your body. It’s a safer way than experiencing pain which tells you your body is working. With fear, your memories are more real, your experience is more real, and you go through a bit of a rush. You remember your nightmares with vivid clarity more than your most orgasmic dreams.

For others, fear is a trigger. They’ve had trauma and they need a dose of fear like an accidental pregnancy. We live in a society where there is already a lot of fear, some people would rather just come home, open a book and read something happy. I certainly don’t blame them when they desire to have as little to do with horror as possible.

To what extent are your characters based on you or people you know?

None on real life. But I do know Samdel Thatch quite well as he’s the main character in Book 3 of my Rise of Evil Series called the Lantern Bearer’s Quest.

Do you know your ending when you write, or do you start and see where the story or characters take you?

Yes, I always know the ending when I write. I am a plotter. I have will plot out my story anywhere between four to six times before I actually sit down to write a story. However, I have frequently deviated from it often or end up cutting significant parts of it. The Mark of the Spider lost half its original plot due to word limitations and I could only use a third of Dark Secrets and Hidden Pasts.

What is the best thing about being a writer?

Reading reviews. Knowing I made someone cry after they finished my story. Being forgiven after someone reads my story also is a great experience too. Reading a dedication to you after you’ve helped someone significantly with their work.

What is the worst thing about being a writer?

I won’t be making any money at this.

To what extent (if at all) do you agree with the statement “write what you know”?

Ever read a story that had dragons in it? I read stories that had dragons in it. Lots of dragons. We can add elves, magic, gnomes, and undead in those stories too. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think dragons exist in real life, but still… Someone stopped and wrote about them and here we are. If people wrote what they know, then there is a lot of fraud out there regarding dragons.

Are you promiscuous or monogamous with your genre of choice?

I am a motorcycle clubhouse whore when it comes to genres. I prefer fantasy, but I will write and read anything. I want to be the writer who can write in any genre at any rating. 2019 will have several new genres from me.

Which writers inspire you?

Frank Herbert, Robert Jordan, Tracy Hickman, Margaret Weis, and Glenn Cook.

What are your future writing plans?

2019 is shaping up to be a busy year for me. I will be participating in five out of the six planned anthologies from Dragon Soul Press. I hope to revise and release Fallen From the Stars, and the first three books from The Rise of Evil series while working and finishing Crown of Dragons (Book 4). I also plan on writing a trilogy. Lastly, I have about a half-dozen flash fiction pieces I plan on releasing on my FB page.

What advice would you give someone who tells you they want to be a writer?

1. Set realistic goals if you’ve never really written before. If you feel like you have a story in you, take a writing class. Learn. Practice. Write short stories so you can build endurance to write longer ones. Writing is an endurance sport.
2. Get. Feedback. On. Your. Work. There is an expression that your first one million words will be crap. True, but don’t make the first word after your million crap too if you’ve never gotten feedback. When you get it, don’t get defensive, don’t argue, and don’t be asking for criticism just to be validated.
3. Read your favorite successful authors and emulate their writing style and patterns. Over time, you will develop your own and become an author in your own right but you need to learn from a master before you become one yourself.
4. Get yourself a muse. Someone you can talk to about your work when you feel like you can. I have several authors whom I frequently collaborate on ideas with.
5. Leave your ego at the door. Some people are going to read your work and mouth off your work sucks. You can’t please everyone, but if they tell you why your work sucks, stop, and pay attention. I’d rather have my colleagues tell me something is bothering them about my story than to just ignore their feedback and read the 1-star review that echoes the same sentiment.

For more about Hui Lang and his writing, check out his writing on Amazon and Goodreads here and here respectively.

Over the next couple of days, check back here for interviews with my other fellow authors in the All Dark Places anthology, Anna Sinjin and A M Cummins.

All Dark Places is released on the 30^th of October and can be pre-ordered here.